Designer Spotlight: SALTHOUSE Collective
Leigh Jendrusina of SALTHOUSE Collective creates vibrant and unexpected spaces inspired by California cool design. Based in Carlsbad, California, Leigh is the founder and principal designer of SALTHOUSE Collective, a boutique interior design and styling studio. With coastal, bohemian, Mid-Century, and Scandinavian design influences, Leigh prioritizes effortless and easy living while making an impact with her eclectic and collected style. We sat down with Leigh to tell us more about her design choices, styling process, and inspiration.
With a focus on the southern California lifestyle, Leigh designs homes that are connected to their surroundings and are meant to be lived in. Employing approachable materials and laid-back design, her goal is to create a versatile and cohesive space that is perfect for everyday living as well as entertaining. Taking advantage of the sunny weather, Leigh emphasized how “being able to live and entertain outside is really important in the homes I design” and she tries to bring the outside in whenever possible through natural light and textures that mimic the outdoors. With natural and organic materials such as rattan, wood, and bamboo, Leigh recommends mixing textures and materials to create a timeless look. “You can’t have too many of the same things in one room- blending the materials creates a modern and fresh look that can’t be defined by a certain time period or trend.”
A big fan of layering and textures, Leigh thinks the most important part of styling a room is adding the art and accessories. “Once you have art on the walls and accessories on the tables and surfaces, then it feels like a room,” Leigh explained, claiming that these final elements are what truly finish a project. Sticking to a mostly neutral color scheme, Leigh loves to use accessories to incorporate color into her projects. This way, the client can switch out accessories to have a new accent color and it will still complement the color scheme of the home. Instead of having a repeated color throughout a home, Leigh often uses a repeated pattern to tie the project together, stating “a pattern will still make an impact even if it’s not in a bright color.”
Leigh gravitates towards bold and unique art, explaining “I love your art because I’m so drawn to graphic art with eclectic shapes and patterns.” Citing the design of the artwork as more impactful than the color scheme, Leigh seeks out vibrant works that give the space a “cool factor.” An admirer of our silkscreen ink selection, Leigh loves how a lot of our colors are “in-between” colors, a mix of two colors creating a more neutral shade that you wouldn’t find elsewhere. For her Wilmington project, she customized our High Contrast and Horizons silkscreens to be in our warm grey and indigo inks to perfectly fit the warm neutral color scheme of the living room.
